On the road, runners are often alone, isolated and defenseless. How do we protect ourselves? What if there is an accident or sudden illness? Are women safe, running by themselves?

Personal running security is an issue each of us should carefully consider. Too many bad things can happen in traffic. You’ve seen the drivers with the cell phone stuck in their ears. No one knows what they are going to do next! And any runner, regardless of age, can get sick or injured out on the road.

Don’t leave home without identification. You can buy ID tags or bracelets or you can make a simple tag yourself. I spent $5 on a metal tag and necklace. If necessary it could have included important medical information, but for now it has only my name and phone number. So at least the authorities will be able to identify my body.

Women who run, in particular, have security concerns. Most of the women in my immediate family are runners. I want them to be cautious. Their routes should never go through isolated areas. It’s not always possible, but they know there is more safety in running with a partner. Should they carry a cell phone or at least a whistle to attract attention if needed? I believe they should avoid establishing a routine that would make them an easy target.

All runners have to stay alert. I believe that can be compromised by earbuds and loud music. Although tunes are a great distraction, don’t let them put you in danger. After all, you are running for health and pleasure. It doesn’t make sense to put yourself in peril while you are on the road.

In the Post Office, on television, on bulletin boards, even on milk cartons
pictures of missing children.
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I was recently involved in a Facebook controversy over the difference between running and jogging. Oddly, one non-runner opined that anything over 7 minute miles was jogging. That was rather insulting to runners. I suggested he go jog a few 8 minute miles to see whether he thought it was running or jogging. Apparently, he did not give it a try.

My answer to the question, running or jogging, is strictly technical. At some point In running both feet are off the ground. With that definition, a runner taking short strides (a child, for instance) may be running 12 minute miles.

What I suggest is that pace is determined by leg speed and stride length. I imagine there are speed walkers who can do 7 minute miles. And there are some runners who can’t do 11 minute miles. But many good sprinters would not even try to “jog” 13 or 26 miles.

I’ve said before that on any long run I do some jogging, some slogging and some running. My guess is that other runners do the same. At least we are out there doing it! We don’t need someone, who is sitting on the porch, trying to tell us what to call it.

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It’s taken a long time for me to figure out, but I am not going to let hills bother me anymore.

Here’s why. For years I listened to advice about changing the running technique when climbing. It isn’t that I don’t go along with a little forward lean, etc. What I have found is that the “hill” problem is more psychological than physical. If you let them bother your run, they will certainly bother your run!

So if hills are a head problem, is there a head solution? I have learned to attack hills by taking them ten feet at a time. I drop my focus from 1000 feet ahead to ten to twenty feet ahead. I am only interested in the next twenty feet. It is important to remember, at the same time, that I am working out on the hill, building my strength and stamina.

Of course, I still need to pay attention to traffic and other road hazards. And on the downhill run that always follows, I can still sight-see and enjoy the scenery.

WHAT HAPPENS TO those missing kids on Milk cartons ?
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Impossible? It is, unless it is the runner’s first and last. that’s two. Sorry.

But even if they never run another, you have to give credit to anyone who runs a marathon.
To make the attempt, going through the long training and conditioning, is to show will power and character. It takes persistence to endure pain that could be entirely avoided by staying on the porch. The pain is optional and unnecessary. Those who finish a marathon learn one of life’s fundamental truths: The greatest rewards come from the greatest sacrifice.

“First Marathon” was written for my youngest daughter on the occasion of her first. It was previously published on http://www.runningmoms.com

FIRST MARATHON

Alone in a crowd of strangers,
Anxiously waiting for the gun,
You haven’t trained so well, I know.
I hope you’re ready for the run!
Endure! Endure!

Ahead you’ll find the reality wall
Where hope is lost and daydreams end.
When time and distance become one
Just don’t let your spirit bend!
Endure! Endure!

It’s better to stagger along today
And bear the pains and aches,
Than to wonder for a lifetime
If you have the strength it takes!
Endure! Endure!

Remember this oh lonely runner,
Life teaches us this lesson last:
Its greatest reward comes only
When you’ve done the hardest task!
Endure! Endure!

Dennis Leger

Readers wanted! Read a thriller, THE MILK MARKET. See reviews at
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I like this short video called “Runners Creed–The Road to Peace.” It’s from New Balance, but it’s not an ad. It says what I know a lot of runners feel. Well done. http://www.newbalance.com/?cmpid=07620100308

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Estimates vary, but if you do the math you have about 2.5 billion heartbeats available in your lifetime. Based on your current age, you can guess at how many of yours remain, give or take a few million.

You would be wrong if you said you didn’t want to use those heartbeats up in aerobic exercise. Fear not. Although your pulse, beats per minute, can easily double during exercise, doing the math shows that it is a good investment. Actually, the long term effect of aerobic work-outs (like running) is to slow the heart rate. You make the heart stronger and more efficient. It then has to work less often, slower pulse, to do the same amount of work.

Doing the math, a few hours a week of elevated metabolism results in hundreds of hours of easy work for the heart. Resting pulse rates for aerobically trained athletes are often in the 40s. That’s amazing leverage in the use of your lifetime of heartbeats!

It’s easy to do the numbers with the heart. But your muscles, lungs, circulation and the rest of your system enjoy similar benefits, except there is no way to quantify them. Runners know those benefits. Their life clock beats slowly and they feel better.

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Whether you run five miles a week or train for a marathon, you face the same issue. You are asking your body to do something it would rather not. At any level of training, as you run your body is learning stamina. Your muscles are learning to store more glycogen. There will be a direct relationship between the number of miles you run and your muscles ability to go the distance.

To me, stamina and endurance are not the same. It depends on the level of your training, of course, but at some point, at some distance, you will run out of fuel. As the glycogen levels decline, you will ask your body to keep going. Yes, you will use all of your stamina and you will need something more to finish the race or just to keep a training promise. When your body runs out of gas you can ask it to keep going, to use the last gallon.

When your legs and lungs are ready to quit, you need endurance, the ability to endure pain. Fortunately, as you train your body to go the distance, you are also conditioning your mind. You learn that going on won’t kill you. You are learning to endure.

Stamina=physical Endurance=mental

I don’t know what the average cost of entering a marathon, or half marathon, is these days. I know the marathon I run each year has increased the entry fee by about 300% in less than twenty years.

As in any other business, costs go up and they have to be passed down to consumers. Running events have gotten so big that everything about them is big. Apparently there is no economy of scale in the promotion, advertising, security, facility rental, permits, staff, medical, legal, printing, mailing and all the other expenses of an event.

That leads me to the $100 T-shirt. My wife would gladly help me find a nice T-shirt for less than $10. And she wonders, correctly, why I can’t just run 26 miles on my own, without 7000 other people. She could also point out, with appropriate sarcasm, that I usually run for solitude.

Well, I train without 7000 people. I put on the miles on my own. And I do enjoy solitude. But ultimately, the marathon is the goal I work for. I could do it all without that goal. But I don’t want to!

I wear t-shirts a lot, all summer anyway, and I like to say I don’t wear one unless I ran the race or walked the walk. (Celiac walk, a fund raiser for Celiac disease research. Good t-shirts!)

The $100 hamburger is common in general aviation, flying small airplanes. The cost of firing up the bird and flying to a nearby airport for a meal far exceeds the value of the meal by itself. It is flying for fun that just happens to include a hamburger. These days, when a lift ticket at a ski area or a round of golf is nearly $100, I guess a marathon or two per year is not a waste of money.

And I get the neat T-shirt.

NEED A BREAK? Read “The Milk Market” See reviews, a short summary, buy in print or ebook at
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I suppose I appreciate James Brooks because I am a Grandfather, a runner and a pilot.

Brooks is a WWII fighter pilot, double Ace, who flew 55 combat missions in a P-51 Mustang. Still running in his late eighties he and the P-51 are the subject of a great video, a Gray Eagles film by Chris Woods. View it at http://www.asb.tv/videos/view.php?v=1bf99434&br=500 (It is narrated by Peter Coyote)

This is a touching video about one of the remaining members of what has been called “the greatest generation.” It is about Brook’s relationship with his grandchildren, a reunion with other P-51 pilots and a his chance to fly “the greatest fighter aircraft” again, in his eighties.

It is easy for me to identify with flight footage shot over eastern Idaho in view of the Tetons. It’s where we recently enjoyed seven winters.

What is clear from the video is that, at his age, Major Brooks is still physically active and mentally sharp. We should all hope, as we age, to do as well.

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—I thought I was special. There was an ICD, an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator sewed into my chest. There I was, still running marathons. More than that, I was feeling great. We were In Duluth, Minnesota, at Grandma’s Marathon a few years ago.
—The weather was perfect and I was running with my youngest daughter, her first marathon. We weren’t making great time, but she had an IT band issue and it was about my 17th marathon. I had nothing to prove. I was making jokes to ease her pain. I knew that an Elvis impersonator would be at about mile 18. I told her we would run until we saw Elvis, then we could walk for a while.
—Funny thing happened at a potty stop. Waiting in line, I started talking with another runner (about my age.) As we started edging around health issues and I was getting ready to mention my ICD, he told me about his heart transplant. Heart transplant? I thought it was enough to run with an ICD, to back up my cardiac rhythm.
—This guy had traded in his heart for someone else’s and he was still running marathons.
—Unfortunately, I never got his name or bib number. I would love to know how he finished. He and my daughter made me proud that day. She endured and so did he.

NEED A BREAK? Read “The Milk Market” See reviews, a short summary, buy in print or ebook at http://www.themilkmarket.com

Your comments are always welcome. Email dennis@themilkmarket.com